The Lie (Kings of Linwood Academy 2)

“Of course.” He nods, then glances at Lincoln, dismissing him with a look.

Lincoln pushes his chair back and comes over to pull mine out again, helping me stand. Concern and confusion flicker in his amber eyes.

As we head toward the door, I glance back. “Thank you for the dinner invitation. It was… lovely.”

The word tastes like ash on my tongue, but Samuel beams.

Lincoln keeps his arm wrapped around my waist as we head up the stairs, like he’s afraid I might fall down them if I’m not supported. When we get to my room, he deposits me on the bed and then goes back to close the door, leaning against it with his arms folded as I perch on the end of the mattress.

“What the fuck is going on, Low? What are you not telling me?”

His voice is hard, and I know that although he’s concerned for me, he’s not dumb enough to believe my abrupt exit from dinner is just because of a simple stomach ache.

Fuck.

I convinced River not to tell him for a little while, but maybe that was a bad idea to begin with. I can’t keep my suspicions from him indefinitely, and the longer I wait, the worse it will be—because it won’t just be his dad’s possible betrayal, but mine too.

So I tell him.

I open my mouth and spill everything I know, from the paternity test I found in his dad’s study to what Savannah told me about Iris being with an older man to the fight I overhead yesterday.

Linc doesn’t say anything as I talk, letting me speak uninterrupted until I finally run out of things to say. He doesn’t move either. His body is still as a statue, and his face impassive as silence falls in the space between us.

“I don’t know,” I add, unable to stand the quiet. “Maybe I’m wrong. When I first found the paternity test, I thought it was about you. That he thought maybe your mom had cheated or something, and he wasn’t sure he was your real dad. Maybe that is what it’s about.”

I almost told Linc about the paternity test once before, when I wanted to lash out and hurt him somehow. I hadn’t, because it had felt like too serious of a truth to use against someone like that. But now, in the midst of all the shit piling down on us, the idea that his mom had an affair is actually one of the more pleasant possibilities.

Lincoln shakes his head, and I can see the gears turning in his mind as he processes everything I just told him.

“No,” he says slowly. “The paternity test definitely wasn’t about me. My dad knows I’m his kid, and even if Audrey hooked up with someone else, it wouldn’t change that fact.”

“But how could he know that? What if she—”

“Because Audrey’s not my birth mother.” His amber eyes burn as his gaze finds mine. “She’s my stepmother.”

16

I blink at him. “What?”

“Audrey’s not my mom by birth,” Linc mutters, and although he’s answering me, I have a feeling his mind is a thousand miles away. “My real mom died just after I was born, and my dad married Audrey before I was a year old. So she’s the only mother I’ve ever really known, but we don’t share DNA. Even if my dad thought she cheated on him, he still wouldn’t worry about whether he’s my father.”

Oh. Fuck.

I didn’t know that. And I guess I’m not surprised that Linc never mentioned it. Why would he? He and Audrey aren’t close or anything, but she probably does feel like a real mother to him. He’s never known another one, so there are no shoes for her to fill.

But if the paternity test definitely isn’t about Lincoln, that only makes it more likely that it’s about Iris’s unborn baby.

If she came to him telling him he was the father, of course Mr. Black would want proof that the baby was really his before he gave her any money or anything.

Shit, maybe she asked for too much, or he was afraid she’d tell the wrong people about it. She wasn’t exactly the most discreet person.

Lincoln’s still staring at me, and I have a feeling he’s sorting through the exact same litany of questions I am.

And coming up with the exact same answer.

Samuel Black.

Everything points back to him.